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8P/TUTTLE - (1790 A2 - 1858/A1)

Photometric data obtained by use of FOCAS-II software

                                   10x10  20x20  30x30  40x40  50x50  60x60   SNR   SB   COD

OBJECT        DATE       TIME        +/-    +/-    +/-    +/-    +/-    +/-     N  FWHM  CAT

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COMET         UTC                   DELTA    r    BOX "   MAG   RSR    CM    +/-  AFRHO  OBS

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 P. F. A. Méchain (Paris, France) discovered this comet in the evening sky near Omicron Piscium on 1790 January 9.75. On januari 9.80 he determined its position as R.A: 1h39m30558s and DEC: +7d44m47.7s. The comet was observed by other astronomers troughout januari, but no one provided better representations of the comet’s telescope appearance than Charles Messier (Marine Observatory, Paris) His first observation on jan. 10the revealed an extremely faint comet that was of the same brightness and appearance of comet he found on 1785 jan. 7 (C/1758 A1).

Horace Parnell Tuttle (Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts) discovered this comet on 1858 January 5.01. He described it as "rather faint, but not so much so as to afford any difficulty in observing it with the great refractor." Karl Christian Bruhns (Berlin, Germany) independently discovered this comet on January 11.89. He described it as "a very large diffuse object without nucleus and distinct border." By that time, several observatories had already confirmed Tuttle's discovery, so Bruhns' name was not attached to this comet.

The comet was well observed during the remainder of january and passed closest to Earth during the second half of the month. F.A.T. Winnecke (Pulkovo Observatory, Russia) described the comet as faint and difficult to see on the 16the, with a coma diameter of 2.5’. J.C. Watson and F.F.E. Brünnow (Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA) observed with a 30-cm telescope on the 21st and 22nd and sais the comet appeared very faint on account of moonlight. H.L. D’Arrest (Copenhagen, Denmark) saw the comet on the 23rd and 24th. He described it as a large and hardly perceptible in bright moonlight. D’ Arrest said the comet was only occasionally seen in moonlight on the 29th.

(courtesy: Gary W. Kronk - Cometography vol.1)

Apparition of 2007-2008: This was a very nice apparition for this comet. Since its discovery in 1790, this comet has made five particularly close approaches to Earth, with the best being the discovery apparition itself, when it passed 0.37 AU from our planet. The comet beat that value on 2008 January 2, when it passed 0.25 AU from Earth! The comet was an easy binocular object and was visible to the naked eye for observers with very dark skies. It spent most of the latter half of 2007 close to the celestial north pole and then rapidly moved southward in December. By the end of January 2008, the comet was mostly visible to observers in the Southern Hemisphere.